The invention relates to communications systems in general and, more specifically, the invention relates to an interactive electronic program guide suitable for use in an interactive video information delivery system.
In several communications systems the data to be transmitted is compressed so that the available bandwidth is used more efficiently. For example, the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) has promulgated several standards relating to digital data delivery systems. The first, known as MPEG-1, refers to the ISO/IEC standards 11172 and is incorporated herein by reference. The second, known as MPEG-2, refers to the ISO/IEC standards 13818 and is incorporated herein by reference. A compressed digital video system is described in the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital television standard document A/53, and is incorporated herein by reference.
The above-referenced standards describe data processing and manipulation techniques that are well suited to the compression and delivery of video, audio and other information using fixed or variable length digital communications systems. In particular, the above-referenced standards, and other “MPEG-like” standards and techniques, compress, illustratively, video information using intra-frame coding techniques (such as run-length coding, Huffman coding and the like) and inter-frame coding techniques (such as forward and backward predictive coding, motion compensation and the like). Specifically, in the case of video processing systems, MPEG and MPEG-like video processing systems are characterized by prediction-based compression encoding of video frames with or without intra- and/or inter-frame motion compensation encoding.
Over the past few years, television has seen a transformation in the variety of means by which its programming is distributed to consumers. Cable television systems are doubling or even tripling system bandwidth by migrating to hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) cable as an information delivery medium. Many consumers have turned to direct broadcast satellite (DRS) systems to receive higher quality (with respect to NTSC) video imagery. Other video information delivery approaches using high bandwidth digital technologies, intelligent two way set top boxes and other methods are used by information providers to offer services that are differentiated from standard cable and over the air broadcast systems.
With this increase in bandwidth, the number of programming choices has also increased. Leveraging off the availability of more intelligent set top boxes, several companies such as Starsight® and Prevue™ Guide have developed elaborate systems for providing an interactive listing of the vast array of channel offerings, expanded textual information about individual programs, the ability to look forward to plan television viewing as much as several weeks in advance, and the option of automatically programming a VCR to record a future broadcast of a television program.
An interactive digital video on demand (VOD) service known as the DIVA system is manufactured by DIVA Systems Corporation of Menlo Park, Calif. The DIVA system distributes audio-visual information to individual subscribers utilizing MPEG-like information streams. DIVA subscribers utilize intelligent set top terminals (STT).
Unfortunately, the existing program guides have several drawbacks. They tend to require a lot of memory, some of them needing upwards of one megabyte of set top terminal memory. They are typically very slow to acquire their current database when they are turned on for the first time or are subsequently restarted (e.g., a large database may be downloaded to a set top terminal using only a vertical blanking interval (VBI) data insertion technique). Disadvantageously, such slow database acquisition may result in out of date database information or, in the case of a pay per view (PPV) or video on demand (VOD) system, limited scheduling flexibility for the information provider. Additionally, the user interface to existing program guides does not usually look like a typical television control interface; rather the user interface looks like a 1980s style computer display (i.e., blocky, ill-formed text and/or graphics).
Therefore, it is seen to be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for providing the functionality of electronic program guide in a manner tending to reduce the above-described problems.